Editors' Review

Downloading videos, Flash games, and large batches of files is greatly simplified with this freeware download manager, but Firefox users may have difficulty with integration.

Orbit's primary interface is bland, but the basic toolbar and info boxes guarantee everything is easy to find. Orbit shines with Internet Explorer integration. To get a media file, simply right-click a video or photo and choose Download from your context menu. Grabbing a Flash game is even easier. Hover over a Flash file, and Orbit displays a button for a fast download.

Fast and small are key traits of this application. It uses a bare minimum of memory, and downloads are much faster than with a browser alone. Where Orbit shines is its one-button simplicity for downloading multiple files on a site. From there, you can easily filter for file type. Orbit's numerous configuration options make it one of the more flexible download managers available.

Although designed to integrate with the IE, Firefox, Opera and Maxthon, we had great difficulty getting Orbit to work seamlessly with Firefox. We finally gave up trying to get the Flash download feature to work. Nevertheless, anyone downloading large numbers of files will find this freeware indispensable.

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Publisher's Description

Orbit Downloader, leader of download manager revolution, is devoted to new generation Web application downloading to make downloads more easier and faster. It is a free all-in-one downloader which can download any social media.

It takes over all downloading, using the same default location each time, requiring one to browse for a desired location for each download. (The built-in downloader defaults to the last location saved which is convenient at least part of the time.)

1) It still makes none LAN users push their download times like if it was on LAN. 2) Download manager is easily manageable and navigable. 3) been using this for months 4) grab++ can get youtube vids

Cons

Nothing to complain about.

Summary

It runs circles around FireFox's regular download manager; 3 to 4x faster. It might make your regular internet connection comparable to LAN when using this downloader. If LAN was not fast enough, this thing makes it like lightning (1GB = 5min; 1GB = 20 min without).

Plus, when clicking on a download link Orbit is prompted in the same pop-up window with Firefox's download manager. So you can download either way.

Even with sites that have poor downloading capabilities this thing just knocks the packets out of it like it was a pinata.

Not much. It took too long to download embedded flash video, and the quick downloads (PDF files) I could have downloaded easier by right clicking.

Cons

A pop up box kept appearing, and it wouldn't go away. So anytime I wanted to play a game online, the pop up box would block the action.

Summary

This program sounds good, but the inability to control when it asks to grab or download flash or PDF on a website makes it impractical to use. When playing online games, the pop up box keeps appearing on each turn, meaning that the small pop up blocks the action. After closing the program, everything seemed okay until I went to a PDF document online, and then Orbit locked down my computer while it downloaded the PDF. It did not prompt me about the download. This is very dangerous for computer health.

Also, when downloading video, it took exactly as long as the video played. So a 1 hour video took 1 hour to download. This makes it useless when you need to download 30 hours of business videos. Other programs will let you download without having to play the video all the way through.

I had to uninstall the program due the lack of ability to control downloads, the long download times, and the pop ups.

I do not recommend this program for those who need a fast download program that won't interfere with other normal computer activities.

The Orbit "Getit" bar lacks the codecs I need for playback. When I use Firefox's regular "Download Helper" it readily converts to an MP4 format which lets my GOM player offer an easy, immediate playback--no missing codecs!--Orbit doesn't do that.

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